Total cost for diy total LED upgrade?

[Ribenapigeon]

How much to completely upgrade a bike to LED's ? How much hassle is it and what are the best quality parts to use?

Cheers.

[MCN]

Entirely dependent on how cheap/classy you are.

Not that much hassle apart from the headlamps. Most incandescent lamps have simple replacement LEDs.

But a sound idea.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[RhynoCZ]

It's cheap, BUT I'd still keep traditional bulbs for the head lights. If you're gonna use LED bulbs for the tail light, make sure they are 350lm+. The replacement for the 5W bulbs in the clocks is cheap as well.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[stinkwheel]

In my experience. The "cluster" type of LED bulb do not last any longer than standard filament types.

They are prone to corrosion and sensitive to vibration.

They are also horribly directional (so a tail light one is only properly visile from directly behind).

I had LED stop and tails fitted to my VFR and after 6 months shit-canned them in favour of standard, good quality (named brand) filament bulbs again.

So avoid this type:
https://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/ItemImages/Large/GLB380LED-RED.jpg

Surface mount ones ought to be better but I'd want them potted/ sealed and I'd want them with angled/side mounted LEDs as well as pointing straight back.

Also be aware dash LEDs can be pretty sensitive to very low current leakage. My main beam warming glows dimly in wet conditions if the headlight is on. I presume due to moisture in the switch/relay.

Why do you want LEDs on your XJ6? I'd have thought it would provide ample power for all it's electrical requirements along with a few extras?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Matt B]

[Ribenapigeon]

I was under the impression LED's are brighter for less drain on the electrical system, more reliable and longer lasting. If that's not the case I'll stick with standard, though id like brighter headlights.

[RhynoCZ]

More bright, less drain, yes. More reliable, it depends. I have got LED bulbs in my tail light, 2000 miles done, worked great so far. The reason I went for LEDs was to reduce the drain during braking. Traditional bulbs made my headlight go dim. My mate used small LEDs in interior of his car and the car did many many thousands of miles. If you count all the 5W bulbs that are there, knowing the LED alternative needs about 1.5W, you get yourself a considerable amount of power saved.

https://obd.tui21.com/img/tui21201333215056734.jpg
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[stinkwheel]

They draw less current certainly. But that's not going to make your headlight brighter unless you up the wattage well beyond that it's got fitted already (at which point you may need to consider uprating the wiring leading to it and it would be illegal at a level that would be overloading your charging system anyway) or fit additional lights.

LEDs are not necessarily brighter. Depends on the LED.

Where I have used them before was to free up current to fit auxilliary lighting (I had some VERY silly headlights on my MZ street moto).

I personally think LEDs as a headlamp have a ways to go yet.

I fitted some good quality, brand name headlight bulbs to my VFR and they made an enormous difference. Bosch +90s as I recall.

A GOOD reason to fit a (sufficiently bright and visible) LED lamp on your bike would be for the brake light. AN LED will come on 0.2 seconds sooner than a tungsten filament. At motorway speeds, you've travelled 6.3 metres in that time.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[MCN]

[RhynoCZ]

[Matt B]

[sickpup]

Changing everything for LEDs could cause the reg/rec to fail prematurely.

[Ribenapigeon]

[sickpup]

[stinkwheel]

As sickpup says.

I run with the headlight on in daytime on my VFR, not so much to be seen as to take load off the reg/rec.

A switch-mode reg/rec wouldn't be as prone to the same issues but looking on ebay, an XJ6n has an SH type which does dissipate excess current as heat.

@ RhynoCZ. Assuming you were on a modern japanese bike with a 3-phase alternator, it sounds like you had some other issue there. Either with alternator output or your wiring. The brake light shouldn't be dippng the headlamp. Manufacturers have a tendancy to push the limits to the bare minimum with wiring thicknesses which, after a few years and a build-up of corrosion on terminals and (especially) switches, can lead to significant resistance in the circuit.

Amazing the difference bunging a couple of relays in to control the lighting circuit can make on older bikes with DC lighting (both Japanese and others. Works REALLY well on old MZs).

Quick job. You run a relatively heavy twin-core wire up to the back of the headlights direct from the battery and main frame earth. Hook them into a single-throw, normally off, fused relay (ideally with a diode, you sometimes get an earth feedback-loop causing them to "latch" otherwise) and use the dipped headlamp to switch it. Have the output from this feeding into a changeover relay and use the high-beam output to switch it. The outputs from the changeover relay go to the bulb.

This isn't helping the OP who I suspect should simply check the aim of his headlamp and consider upgrading his bulb.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Ribenapigeon]

Yeah, I'm just going to upgrade the bulb, seems the best option.

[smegballs]

[ADSrox0r]

I've been on a bit of a journey with bulb 'upgrades' of late and I can tell you, LED technology just isn't quite there yet. If you want as good as it gets, buy a set of Cyclops 3800 lumen fan cooled jobbies if they'll fit. Even then they're still not as good for night projection as decent halogens such as Nightbreakers.

In the end, I chucked HIDs in with the new H7'R' type bulbs that cut a lot of the glare out of reflector lens fittings.
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Current bikes: '08 VFR 800 VTEC(yo) , '07 ZZR1400 Winter hack: '95 Aprilia 650 Pegaso Currently lusting after: RC30